Skip this post if you are already aware of Dr Ingham's newsletter on soil. Attached is a somewhat commercial free newsletter. This is an eye opener for all of us who were taught chemical soil analysis. The role of soil life in nutriment retention and breaking down of toxic substances are two ideas we can all apply. --------------------- This is the Introductory Newsletter. It comes to you now as a "Welcome" note and to give you the necessary background on The Soil Foodweb and a bit of information on Dr. Ingham's laboratory & research facility...Soil Foodweb, Incorporated. A complete Archive of previous Issues is available at the Soil Foodweb, Inc. Website: ************************************* http://www.soilfoodweb.com/ezine.html ************************************* At the end of this letter you will find a rather detailed Q&A session between Dr. Elaine Ingham and someone just like you! This is a real exchange and we hope to encourage you to ask questions and send comments. We're very excited about this opportunity to open a dialogue that will lead to further learning by all of us. If you have something to share, please email Dr. Elaine Ingham directly at the following address: ***************************** mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***************************** She will address your email personally and maybe you'll find it posted in a future newsletter! You can send a special request for back issues of this E-Zine.... Otherwise, we'll just add you to the list where we are in the series. You'll start receiving the letters from that point. Also, as Dr. Ingham's Multi-Media Publishers we will keep you up on new product releases and webupdates through our own E-Zine if you wish to subscribe. Unisun Communications' focus is on educating and spreading information toward building a better world. Dr. Ingham is our primary project right now. Our site focuses more on the "activist" side of things... Pretty exciting stuff! Letters, Audio, Video... To receive our free E-Zine send a request to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] So, all fomalities aside.... On with the good stuff you've been waiting for! Peace, Samuel A. Ettaro II Unisun Communications Dr. Ingham/SFI Newsletter Administrator http://www.unisun.org (541)367-8980 *************************** The Soil Foodweb: *************************** There are several million to billion organisms, which typically require a microscope to see, that live in soil and around the roots of plants. The way these organisms interact with each other and with plants is called the Soil Foodweb. There is a best balance of all the different kinds of microorganisms for each kind of plant to get best plant health and quite often improve yield. A spoonful of healthy soil should contain only beneficial species of bacteria, fungi, nematodes and protozoa that never cause disease or become pests. These species perform vital "functions" in the root zone that can bring real profits to growers IF soil conditions are managed in ways that allow the microbes to live and work. To view some of these critters click on the link below: ________________________________________ http://www.soilfoodweb.com/gallery.html ---------------------------------------- Think about the dollar potential involved with each of the following six functions and then be aware that these functions are entirely biological and only occur through a soil foodweb that is built up, intact and working! ******************************* A balanced Soil Foodweb will: ******************************* 1. Suppress disease-causing and pest organisms 2. Retain nitrogen and other nutrients such as calcium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, etc. 3. Make nutrients available for plant growth at the times plants require at the rates plants require. 4. Decompose plant residues rapidly. 5. Produce hormones that help plants grow. 6. Produce good soil structure, improving water infiltration, oxygen diffusion, and water-holding capacity. 7. Consume pollutants in the soil. Disease suppression: Requires specific species of bacteria and fungi that compete with, inihibit and parasitize disease-causing organisms. The plant uses a minimum of 25% of it's fixed energy each year to feed these beneficial organisms in the volume of soil around it's roots. If pesticides or high levels of fertilizers have been used, or if plowing has been too intensive leaving bare soil for significant periods during the year, these beneficial organisms are no longer present. The exudates the plant makes feed disease organisms, and we see ever-increasing disease problems. The beneficials have to be brought back through inoculation if their numbers are too low, or through feeding the right kinds of foods that select for the "good guys", and not the bad guys. A healthy soil that contains a broad diversity of microbial types most often contains species that consume, inhibit or suppress the kinds of fungi that cause root rots and the kinds of nematodes that attack roots. There is plenty of research and on-farm experience to show that these economic threats can be controlled very well without the need for applied fungicides or nematicides. What it takes for this to happen is good soil health in the form of an active, intact soil foodweb. Retention of nutrients: Nitrate and some other nutrients can leach out and be lost unless they can be banked in soils until the plant needs them. The function of nutrient retention occurs when bacteria and fungi multiply and increase their populations in the soil. Bacteria and fungi are extremely rich in protein that is made from nitrogen. When bacteria and fungi multiply they gather nitrates, ammonium, and organic nitrogen from the soil and convert it to protein in their bodies. Nitrogen in this form is a bank account of nitrogen that does not leach easily and is not lost as a gas. Products and cultural practices that stimulate a "bloom" of bacteria or fungi reproductive growth can be used as tools to achieve nutrient retention. When this function is working in your soil, half of the process that leads to lower rates of N and P with no reduction in crop yield is present. You are retaining N, P, S, Ca, K, Fe, etc, in your soil, and they will NOT end up in surface or groundwater any longer. Recent studies at SFI have shown that fungi are the most important retainers of calcium in the soil. Lose your fungi, and you lose the ability to retain Ca in the soil. Nutrient Recycling: Once nutrients have been retained, other kinds of soil organisms need to be encouraged to feed on the bacteria and fungi. In bacterial-dominated soils, the rich meal of protein in the bacteria and fungi that the predators eat is metabolized and part of the nitrogen is released back into the soil as ammonium that is quickly converted to nitrate for use by crops. In fungal dominated soils, since fungi produce organic acids, ammonium remains as ammonium, and little is converted into nitrate. Look at the form of nitrogen in healthy orchard or conifer forest soils - it is ammonium, not nitrate, that is the major form. Forests where nitrate is higher than ammonium are typically in severe stress, with dying trees. The organisms that release nutrients from the bacteria and fungi (the retained form) are beneficial nematodes that only feed on bacteria or fungi, protozoa that feed on bacteria, and beneficial soil mites that feed on fungi. As these species go about their work they cause nitrogen especially, but also phosphorus and other nutrients, to be released at a gradual rate that supplies crops with a steady diet all season long. Decomposition of crop residues, manure and other organic material: These materials will only decompose if certain species of fungi and bacteria, the "decomposers", decay them and allow recycling processes to occur. The ideal process forms large amounts of humus. The decay function gets rid of crop residues, but what it really does is convert the food energy in fresh organic matter to biological forms that feed other soil organisms that do different indispensable functions, as described below. Production of plant growth regulators: All plants depend on the presence of certain species of soil microorganisms in the root zone to produce various hormones and other chemical "signals" that stimulate growth and development. Two plants from the same seed, one in a dead soil and the other in a living soil, both with the same nutrients, will show different rates of growth, final size and value. The plant growing in healthy soil will have found the partnership it expects with beneficial microbes that produce growth hormones not made by the plant itself. The plant in healthy soil will be the better plant. Soil structure: In order to maintain an well-aggregated soil structure, i.e., to improve or maintain good tilth, the organisms that glue, bind and engineer soil structure and soil pores must be present. Good tilth or good soil structure allows optimum infiltration of air, water and roots. Aggregates will not form unless sand, silt and clay particles are "glued" together by the gums and gels that many species of soil bacteria produce. These aggregates are further strengthened against collapse by species of beneficial fungi that grow throughout the aggregate and physically bind it. The large pore spaces holding "reservoirs" of water must be built by the larger critters, by microarthropods, earthworms, beetle larvae, enchytraeids, etc. The better the set of soil organisms producing resilient structure, the more "strength" your soil has. The more resilient the structure of the soil, the bigger the equipment that can be driven on it, without destroying that structure. Clean up of herbicide or pesticide carry over: Most herbicide and pesticide molecules can be "eaten" or degraded by certain kinds of microbes in the soil, if those species are present. A healthy soil will tend to rid itself of ag chemical carry over and other forms of pollution. Each of the functions above describes how soils are supposed to work and can work. Your opportunity is to learn to employ cultural practices and biological products to get all these functions working at top capacity. Yield and profit will be the result. Until Next Time! Dr. Elaine Ingham ************************ Q&A Session #1 ************************ Q1: I would like to understand the mechanism of beneficial nematodes affecting root-feeders. Do these beneficial nematodes survive thermal composting cycles? A1: What we find is that root-feeding nematodes can be suppressed by having a healthy number of bacterial-feeding nematodes, fungal-feeding nematodes and predatory nematodes present in the rhizosphere. "Healthy" numbers depend on the plant, the soil type, climate, hydrology, etc, so we expect that the number is different based on circumstances. The mechanisms for interactions between these beneficial nematodes and the root-feeding nematodes is something nematologists at a variety of Universities, including my husband at Oregon State University, have been interacting on for a number of years. Nothing extremely formal, certainly not funded by any government agency that I am aware. Right now, the hypothesized explanations for how beneficial nematodes control root-feeding nematodes are: 1. Physical impediment. The beneficials interfere with the ability of the pest nematodes to find the root. This could be by occupying space along the root so the pests don't have room to "belly up to the bar". It could be that beneficials physically bump and push the pest nematodes out of the rhizosphere. 2. Stimulating growth of bacteria or fungi that produce antibiotics or other pest nematode inhibitory compounds. When bacterial- or fungal-feeding nematodes graze their prey, the release of nutrients stimulates the remaining prey to grow faster. This is a culling phenomenon. The stimulated bacteria or fungi may make compounds that kill the pest nematodes. But in order for this mechanism to work, not only must the beneficial nematodes be present, but the right species of bacteria and fungi need to be present. 3. Inoculation of the rhizosphere with bacteria and fungi that trap and parasitize pest nematodes. There are many species of bacteria and fungi that if they can gain entrance to the inside of a nematode, will cause disease, or will parasitize the nematode. Large numbers of nematodes - beneficials or pests - means the diseases of nematodes will eventually arrive too. Maybe that's all that happens - the beneficials bring nematode diseases with them and trash the neighborhood, at least from the root-feeding nematode's point-of-view. 4. Consumption of pest nematodes. Predatory nematodes eat other nematodes. It's not really cannibalism, but more like people eating great apes, or one species of spider eating another species of spider. But the more predatory nematodes present, the more root-feeders will be eaten. It is likely that some species of predatory nematodes specialize in hunting down root-feeding nematodes, so those would be the most effective species to inoculate. Which species are those? It depends on the soil, climate, plant species and pest nematodes present, but the best place to look for this information is in the Journal of Nematology and to talk with your local nematologist. They may not know this kind of information, but perhaps they should be encouraged to do so. We have developed a group of beneficial nematodes that, when added to soil, interfere with root-feeding nematodes. The comparison of control versus treatments show reductions in root-feeders on addition of bacterial-feeding, fungal-feeding and predatory nematodes. But SFI does not sell products. We test to see if nematodes are present and which kinds are present. Are they the right ones, based on climate, soil type, plant desired, etc? We assess whether the other organisms - bacteria, fungi, protozoa, mycorrhizal colonization - are correctly balanced for a healthy soil to grow the desired plant. But, the beneficial nematode "inoculum" is a product that ought to be available to growers. Right now, SFI is willing to send this inoculum to people, but only if you agree to test your soil for the nematodes present BEFORE you inoculate, add the beneficial nematodes, and then test again in a month, and then a year later. Basically, we're asking that you fund the necessary research to determine whether this inoculum will work. We'll supply the inoculum, if you agree to pay for the testing. We need at least two months notice BEFORE we can get started, because we have to make certain we have enough nematode inoculum to add to what you want to test. How much demand might there be for this beneficial nematode inoculum? Most people don't realize this, but there are a number of situations where beneficial nematodes need to be added to soil or to compost. 1. When nematicides have been used, those chemicals kill the beneficial nematodes as well as the pest nematodes. It is rare that the beneficials come back before the pests! 2. When pesticides are used that kill the non-target beneficial nematodes (such as 2,4-D, Bravo in some cases, anything containing an alcohol-base, dichloran, orthene, etc, etc) are used, it may be years before they return. Because it is not required that pesticides be tested to determine their effect on beneficial nematodes, some pesticides likely kill only the beneficials, and not the pest nematodes. Consumers need to demand that this information appear on pesticide labels. 3. When compost gets too hot, too anaerobic, or too wet during composting, the beneficial nematodes are either killed or forced into dormant forms. If killed, the beneficial nematodes need to be added back to the compost as soon as temperature in the pile comes back down to 100 F or lower. Typically, if compost doesn't heat too high, the beneficial nematodes begin to grow at warm, but not-too-hot temperatures. They can then fulfill their beneficial roles of consuming bacteria and fungi, consuming pest nematodes if present, improving nutrient cycling in the compost, and improving aggregate structure in the compost (they are one of the engineers of larger soil pores). If they start growing rapidly enough, they can be in high numbers by the time the compost is mature and added to soil. 4. Following rapid freeze-thaw, or wet-dry cycles, pro-longed anaerobic conditions in the soil, or conditions (toxic chemical spills, fires that heat the soil to high temperatures) that kill the beneficial nematodes. Turning to the question about compost temperature, the data we've collected shows that root-feeding nematodes don't survive thermal composting very well at all. Root-feeders appear to be quite sensitive to temperatures above 100 F, while numerous species of bacterial-feeders and fungal-feeders survive temperatures as high as 145 to 155 F. There are probably some species of root-feeding nematodes that survive high temperatures, but they don't also survive the suppressive activities of beneficial nematodes (outlined above), and the fact that there are no roots to eat in a compost pile. A very important point with composting is if you go over 155 to 160 F, the only nematodes that survive are the ones that can produce dormant stages. This is a very limited set of nematodes and diversity suffers excessively when compost gets too high in temperature. Lack of diversity means you won't have the right beneficial nematodes to suppress, inhibit or eat the pest nematodes given all the diverse set of environmental conditions present through the course of a year. Most ecologists are very cognizant that any one particular species of organism is active and doing it's things only during a limited set of conditions. Some species require low temperature, others high, others need high humidity, others low, some like certain kinds of bacteria to eat, others find those same bacteria toxic, some like high iron, others need low, and so on. Thus, to have active beneficial nematodes through the whole year, you need as wide a diversity as you can manage. Thus, reducing that diversity by getting the compost too hot reduces the chances of having the diversity of species needed to combat the pest species. When we might add an inoculum of beneficial nematodes to improve diversity, we aren't really certain what the best time is for adding that inoculum. In compost, beneficial nematodes appear to be happy even when the temperature is 145 F, but they were in the compost from the beginning of the heating cycle, not added to the compost. Going from ambient temperature in an inoculum to 145 F in the compost might kill the nematodes without some period of acclimation. The beneficial nematodes that were in the compost to begin with are of course acclimated to the heat. But it leaves a question about when is the best time to add an inoculum of beneficial nematodes. We need to start adding at say 100 F, and if all of the added nematodes survive that temperature, then we try adding them to the next compost at 110 F. If they all survive that, then we try 120 F, and so on. So, stay tuned. When we get that figured out, we'll post it on the web site. **************************************************************** To Unsubscribe from this Newsletter List: Place "removeSFI" in the Subject field of an email and... mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] You will be automatically deleted. **************************************************************** Unisun Communications is proud to announce the release of.... Dr. Elaine Ingham Talks on the Soil Foodweb---An audio CD Lecture Series. The first two double CD Sets in the series of 8 lectures are now available! We hope you decide to purchase these wonderful products and continue to learn about the Soil Foodweb. If you have an interest in helping us distribute this line of products we'd love to chat with you further... Please read on! ******************************************** DR. ELAINE INGHAM's CURRENT PUBLISHED WORKS ******************************************** These are not live recordings. All of the CD's are recording in a state of the art digital recording studio and are of the highest quality. Diagrams accompany the CD on the inside jacket. ***************************************************************** CD Series #1--"An Introduction to the Soil Foodweb" NOW AVAILABLE ----------------------------------------------------------------- Compact Disc: Dr. Ingham Talks on the Soil Foodweb Series Speaker: Dr. Elaine Ingham Publisher: Unisun Communications Format: Double CD Set (Audio Only) Dr. Elaine Ingham discusses the important functional groups of organisms that live in soil, how and why they enhance plant growth and production. This is the introductory talk about the Soil Foodweb. All other CD's assume an understanding of this introductory material. Included in this Double CD set: -The seven benefits of a beneficial soil foodweb. -Who starts the process? Soil organisms or plants? -Disease suppression: Working together. -Nutrient retention: Bacteria and Fungi -Production of plant available nutrients: Protozoa, nematodes and microarthropods -Getting rid of toxic compounds. -Soil structure: Bacterial bricks, fungal walls, protozoan, nematode and microarthropod engineers. -Some considerations about plant health ***************************************************************** CD Series #2--"A Plant Production Overview" NOW AVAILABLE ----------------------------------------------------------------- Compact Disc: Dr. Ingham Talks on the Soil Foodweb Series Speaker: Dr. Elaine Ingham Publisher: Unisun Communications Format: Double CD Set (Mixed Media) Dr. Ingham explores the effect chemically intensive agriculture has had on soil life, why pesticides are effective initially, but with continued use, result in the destruction of beneficial soil life, with direct negative impacts on sustainable agriculture. Includes a Slide Presentation of selected images that will play in any Windows or Mac browser! ******************************************************************************* For more information, to order, and to even PREVIEW these CD's for FREE please visit http://www.soilfoodweb.com/multimedia.html ******************************************************************************* If you wish more to get information on distribution, wholesale/reseller pricing, and press opportunities with Dr. Ingham and other Unisun Communications please let us know and we'll give you a direct phone call! ****************************** NEW SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL OFFER ****************************** As a new subscriber to our Monthly E-Zine we'd like to make the following special pricing available to you: Purchase the first two Double CD sets at regular retail and receive a FREE "An Intro to the Soil Foodweb" Double Set with your order... that's a $22.95 gift to you! Give it to a friend! If interested, send us an email saying so and we'll forward you details on how to order at this special price. Peace, Samuel Anthony Ettaro II Creative Development Unisun Communications Publisher, Dr. Elaine Ingham/SFI, Inc. http://www.unisun.org (541)367-8980
